Story+1985-01-13+Columbia,+SC

´´Here´s a song about blind faith and its....it´s about, uh....it´s so hard to find something to hold on to....out there that sometimes people....they need to believe in something, they believe in anything that comes along....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´Reason to Believe´**

´´Oh, thank you....this is uh....this is a song about, uh.....I guess, conscience....and, and duty ....what happens when the things that you feel in your heart....and the things you feel....I guess in your conscience don´t....collide....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´Highway Patrolman´**

´´Thank you, this is uh....I guess it was back around 1976 that I was in Memphis....we played a show at some, some little auditorium there, I remember it was late at night...and uh....me and my guitar player Steve wanted to go out and get something to eat....so we called up a taxi company, a guy came down.....and uh, we told him we wanted to go someplace outside of town....so he said ´Yeah, I know this place out by Elvis´house´....so we said ´You know where Elvis lives ?´, ´Yeah´, ´Take us right there´, he says ´Ok´ so he drives us out to Elvis´ ....I remember I never been there and I got out of the cab and I stood in front of those gates that have the guitar players like on ´em.....and uh, I seen this light in this second, second floor window....and I guess I figured that Elvis must be like sitting up reading or something and uh....I decided I had to go see if he was home.....so I jumped over the wall and uh.....I started running up the driveway....which, later when I thought about it, was kind of a stupid thing to do ´cause I hate it when people do it at my house (chuckles)....but uh, I was filled with the enthusiasm of youth (chuckles)....and I jumped over the wall, I ran up the driveway and I got to the frontdoor and these guards came out of the woods and they asked me what I wanted, I said ´Jeez, well, can I meet Elvis ?´, they said ´No, no, he´s, he´s in Lake Tahoe´, I said ´Yeah, but see like, like I was....like I´m a guitar player too and I was on the cover of like Time and Newsweek´ and he said ´Oh, yeah, oh, sure, yeah, sure you were (?)´ (chuckles)...so he took me out to the gate and they put me back out on the street....they were nice about it, though (chuckles)....but uh, I don´t know what I would´ve said to him if I´d ever met him, I don´t know what I would´ve said...probably would´ve stood there....I remember how bad I felt when a friend of mine called me up and told me....told me that he, that he died....felt like some little part of yourself wasn´t there no more....he kind of came in and.....was hard to understand how somebody who took away so many people´s loneliness could´ve....could´ve ended up being so lonely....but anyway...here´s a song, this is uh, it´s his 50th birthday this last week so....this is uh, this is a song called ´Bye Bye Johnny´....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´Johnny Bye Bye´**

´´Alright now....this is a song....about ancient history....I ain´t talking about the Mesopotamians or the Trojans or the Italians....talking personal stuff here....like the older you get, the more ancient history you got....like I got about my share right now but Clarence, he just had his birthday the other day...he´s got more than me....but as you can see....he has maintained his youthful beauty....some of us got it, some of us don´t.....man´s got it all over... but anyway, this is a song....it´s about personal stuff (guitar sound) excuse me while I beat the hell out of my guitar (chuckles)....this is the kind of stuff that like....you´re gonna read in the National Enquirer when I die....or if my girlfriend gets mad it, you´re gonna read about it while I´m still alive, in one of them tell-all books, you know....but when I was a child, I was only interested in three things....one was pool, my father was a pool player so I wanted to be good enough to beat him....the other one was the guitar....and then the third one was, was .... you know that one, that one.....but I can remember like one Christmastime, my mother took me to New Brunswick and we went to this Sears and for 69.95 she bought me this little pooltable....and like we tied it to the roof of the car and we drive it home in the snow and I was holding on to it and we got home and my dad wouldn´t let me have it downstairs so we like lugged it upstairs, put it in my bedroom....then like I used to bring my girlfriends over, I´d say: ´Dad, we´re gonna go up in my room and play pool for a little while´....but like, but like he was kind of slick ´cause he used to sit in the kitchen, was right underneath my bedroom and if he didn´t hear the poolballs knocking around or if he didn´t hear the guitar strumming, he used to have this broomstick that he used to bang on the ceiling....trying to interrupt my concentration....but like I used to trick him because....like I´d pull the pooltable like real over close to the bed and like every once in a while I would lean up and knock the balls around little bit....ingenuity of youth (chuckles)....anyway....I gave up playing pool as I matured....and of the other two things, the only one thing I became really good at, the only one was, was the guitar....see, that´s why the show´s so long ´cause the other thing happens so fast all the time (chuckles)...but that´s alright because....I´m still looking for some volunteers who wanna practise, practise, practise....that´s my New Year´s resolution, I´m gonna get it down....gotta have some patience though (chuckles)...in the end all things must pass...and you´re left with nothing but glory days....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´Glory Days´**

´´Thanks, this is uh....I remember...when, uh.....I guess it was around 1982, I was living in California for a while....and....thinking about the town I grew up in and what it was like.... what was happening there now....and I know when I was a kid, I think everybody, everybody kind of ends up with a love-hate-relationship with the place that they were raised ....I know when I was about 16, I always say it was mostly hate at the time, I think (chuckles)....the town, it seemed real narrowminded....real small-minded....and that´s the kind of place it was and....they didn´t understand me and I felt like I sure didn´t understand them so (chuckles)....I used to get on the bus and go to the city all the time and spend a lot of time like up in East Village, walking around....you could breathe a little, you could breathe a little easier there ....but uh, I remember when I started to get out and get on the road, I, I always thought ´Man, I´d never come back, I´d never be back´....but as I got older, I started to....I´d come home, I´d get in my car and I´d drive back down there....I´d see how my friends were doing, I´d see what their lives were like....where it had taken them....and I realised that one of the things I was afraid of when I was a kid was I was afraid of belonging to something....´cause like I know I always, like I always carry that town with me now every place I go, no matter where I am....but I guess that if you say that you belong to something that means you´ve got some responsobility there....if you say, if you stand up and you say ´Well, I´m an American´ that means you got some responsobility to the country that you live in....and uh....you know, I mean, there´s a lot of things here, I guess, there´s certainly a lot of things to be proud of and we certainly got our share of things to be ashamed of also....but right now.....when you go out into the lobby, you´re gonna see some folks that are trying to hold up their end of the responsobility.....to South Carolina and....you´re gonna see some people from the South Carolina Network of Foodbanks and what a foodbank is is every year about 20 percent of the food that gets produced in the United States ends up just getting thrown away and meanwhile in every city, in every town, there´s people that are undernourished, there´s people that are going hungry, there´s old folks whose social security checks ain´t getting ´em through the month....there´s people who been hit by unemployment and they need a hand, there´s people who the trickle-down-theory of economics ain´t trickling down to....and, uh, what a foodbank does is it gets that food and it gets it to the agencies that serve the people...and they can use your support....if you got a buck you can spare, they can use that, if you got some time to volunteer, they can use that...they´re here in Columbia and South Carolina trying to make it a more decent and a more dignified place for everybody to live....and uh, sometimes people going hungry seems like it´s something that just happening in a place a long ways away but it´s not, it´s happening here every day in your hometown.....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´My Hometown´**

´´Alright, now, take it easy...well, now, this is a song about the conflict.....between worldly things and spiritual health....between desires of the flesh....and spiritual ecstasy....well, now, where did this conflict begin ?.....well, it began in the beginning in a place called the Garden of Eden....well, now, the Garden of Eden was originally believed to have been located in Mesopotamia....but the latest theological studies have found that its actual location was ten miles south of Jersey City, off the New Jersey Turnpike.....now that´s why they call it the Garden State....but, now, understand....in the Garden of Eden, there were none of the accoutrements of modern living....you couldn´t go out down to the Laundromat to wash your clothes, you couldn´t go home and jump in your nice little soft bed at night and tuck the pillow right upside your head....you couldn´t go put the Pop-Tarts in the toaster and jump in the sack and watch Johnny Carson....you couldn’t go out on to the highway and buy a cheeseburger if you wanted one....no Sir !....in the Garden of Eden there was no sin...there was no sex....man lived in a state of innocence ....now, when it comes to no sex, I prefer the state of guilt that I constantly live in....but before the tour started, I decided to make a spiritual journey to the location of the Garden of Eden to find out the answer to some of these mysteries....and so I hitchhiked out there and I found out that that spot was now occupied by Happy Dan´s Celebrity Used Car Lot....I walked in, the man said to me ´Son, you need a yellow convertible , a four-door DeVille with a Continental spare, wide chrome wheels, air-conditioning, automatic heat, fold-out bed in your backseat, eight-track tapedeck, TV and a phone so you can speak to your baby when you’re driving all alone’...I said ‘I’ll take two’....then I said ´But Dan, but Dan, that´s really not the reason why I came, you see, I wanna know what the answer to some of these mysteries is, why do I feel so much temptation all the time, why does my soul pull me one way and why does my flesh pull me the other....and he said ´Well, son, that´s easy ....because right here on these ten beautiful commercially-zoned acres was the sweetest little paradise that man had ever seen, now, in the Garden of Eden there were many wonderous things : there was a Tree of Life, there was a Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there was a man, Adam, there was a woman, Eve, and she looked so fine ....and when Adam kissed her, it was the first time that a man had ever kissed a woman ....and she had legs that were long and soft to the touch....and when Adam touched her, well, it was the first time that a man had ever touched a woman....and then they walked out into the green fields....and they lay down.... and when Adam.....let´s just say it was the first time....but there was something else in the Garden of Eden on that day, old Satan came slithering up on his belly and somehow he turned their love into a betrayal and sent them driving down into the darkness below....but that´s alright because tonight right here on this backlot for 99.95 and no money down and don´t worry if you´ve got bad credit, it´s good here, I´ve got their getaway car....and now if you´ve got the nerve to ride....I´ve got the keys....to the first....pink....Cadillac....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´Pink Cadillac´**

´´Yeah, I remember it was....it was right around the end of the summer...was this little strip off the river...was like a junkyard where people....from town, they´d take down the things that they didn´t want any more and leave ´em off there to just sit and rust away...sometimes on the weekends a bunch of us would meet down there underneath this....this cottonwood tree and that was, that was where I first seen her....and you know how it is, like, when you first start going out with somebody, it´s like you´re laughing all the time....everything is fun and everything you do is....we´d go out riding, it didn´t matter what we did....but then something happened, I guess time passed....and the things that made her happy once didn´t seem to make her happy anymore....and I was spending most of my time trying to find something that I thought´d make her happy again.....and she got to where she didn´t talk much, you know, she wanted to stay in all the time and she´d hide my keys at night so I couldn´t, I couldn´t go out....and uh....it was hard to make her understand....and I know she understood once....that when I took the car out....and when I won.....that it was the only time I got to feeling....good about myself.....and I know she used to love it....and to have just one thing in your whole life....that you can do that makes you feel proud of yourself....I don´t think that´s too much for anybody to ask....I don´t think that´s too much..... (....) Well, that was the night that we left....just packed our bags.....we still don´t know where we´re going yet but I guess that´ll come in time....but sometimes it seems like time gets running so short on you, like it´s gonna run out on you....and so much gets left behind, so much gets lost....there´s not much you can do....but keep going and keep searching....and you keep going and you keep on going and you keep on going and you keep on going....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

´´Thanks....here´s a little....(?)....something in honor of....Elvis´ and Clarence´s birthday....”
 * 13.01.85 Columbia, SC, intro to ´Can´t Help Falling in Love with You´**